linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] drm/vmwgfx: remove DRM_ERROR message, stops log spamming

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Date:   Wed, 20 Sep 2017 20:33:48 +0200
From:   Daniel Vetter <daniel@...ll.ch>
To:     Emil Velikov <emil.l.velikov@...il.com>
Cc:     Colin Ian King <colin.king@...onical.com>,
        Thomas Hellstrom <thellstrom@...are.com>,
        kernel-janitors@...r.kernel.org,
        "Linux-Kernel@...r. Kernel. Org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        ML dri-devel <dri-devel@...ts.freedesktop.org>,
        VMware Graphics <linux-graphics-maintainer@...are.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] drm/vmwgfx: remove DRM_ERROR message, stops log spamming

On Tue, Sep 12, 2017 at 06:54:45PM +0100, Emil Velikov wrote:
> On 12 September 2017 at 18:47, Colin Ian King <colin.king@...onical.com> wrote:
> > On 12/09/17 18:42, Thomas Hellstrom wrote:
> >> Hi, Colin,
> >>
> >> On 09/12/2017 07:35 PM, Colin King wrote:
> >>> From: Colin Ian King <colin.king@...onical.com>
> >>>
> >>> mmap'ing the device multiple times will spam the kernel log with the
> >>> DRM_ERROR message about illegal mmap'ing the old fifo space.
> >> How are you hitting this? Multiple mappings should be fine as long as
> >> mapping offsets are correct,
> >> so hitting this message should indicate that the user-space app is doing
> >> something seriously wrong, and
> >> having it present in the log should probably help more than it hurts.
> >>
> >> /Thomas
> >
> > Good question.  I hit similar issues with the drm qxl driver when
> > running some kernel regression tests with stress-ng [1]. I realize this
> > is an artificial test scenario so it is definitely not a typical
> > use-case, however, sync the illegal mmapping will return -EINVAL the
> > application will pick up that this is an error without the need of
> > spotting it in the kernel log. And a user space application can perform
> > many millions of these invalid mmaps causing kernel log spamming.
> >
> FWIW I'm the one to "blame" here - pointing Colin to drop the message.
> 
> Two reasons come to mind:
>  - there is a unwritten rule that roughly says "user input should not
> cause kernel log spam"
>  - out of all the DRM drivers only QXL and VMWGFX print a message,
> with a patch addressing the former

Maybe we should make this a written rule by patching
Documentation/drivers/gpu? Would definitely make sense as part of this
patch series.

Thanks, Daniel
> 
> HTH
> Emil
> _______________________________________________
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> dri-devel@...ts.freedesktop.org
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-- 
Daniel Vetter
Software Engineer, Intel Corporation
http://blog.ffwll.ch

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